Looking Ahead To 2014-15 For New York

I am not expecting an announcement of Nassau County allowing Charles Wang to break his lease.

If that changes it likely has to be done no later than January 2014. There has been no marketing done to promote such a move by Barclay's people to build a season ticket base.

I have no idea if Wang's 2009 sublease is still in effect with Smg in some capacity. (Smg handles booking again)

Smg (regardless of sublease) will want their money to the final day of the Islanders lease in July 2015, and even if the Isles left it would still require a buyout from Nassau County to vacate the remaining year.

Nassau County is not going to spend taxpayer money under any circumstances. Everything that happens they expect the developers to pay for the privilege.

Wang has another big hearing 2/4/14 on his Plainview property here. His hotel ownership has not changed, and he makes money off NHL teams/savings using it on Islander players.

If Bruce Ratner wants to walk away from his Coliseum legislature approval that's not even finalized because Nassau/TOH are doing nothing as usual, he can at any time.

If Ratner decides to do the NEC Coliseum project, is finally approved, and secures financing, the Nassau Coliseum closes August 2015, reopens Sept 2017.

By mid 2016, we'll likely know the story with Bridgeport, or if the NHL will allow the team to have two home arena's for regular season games.

Expect the answer to be no. All forty one home games will be at the Barclay's Center.

On the ice the string will be played out in 2013-14. Some wins/many more losses. Too tough a schedule, and far too many weaknesses discussed at length here. This team has eight total goals from it's defense, four on the powerplay. A few corporate teams will exploit their financial advantages to close out the third seed in a weak division.

No team can win consistently without some scoring from it's defense or a power-play quarterback which no team is going give to Garth Snow in a trade. Thomas Hickey, Brian Strait, are in their first full season. Matt Donovan, Calvin deHaan, their second or third partial season. Hamonic is twenty three, MacDonald is not that player offensively with this group. I'm skeptical at Visnovsky's age if he will return at all despite being
signed for 2014-15. Ironic a man who walked away from an auto racing
accident sustained such a serious concussion on such an innocent play.

No coach can improve the issues on defense. No gm is giving away a defender signed long-term who can really help without a franchise player (Tavares) as the return.

We saw the bigger, older, veterans who could not score or play physical with Mottau, Eaton, Staios, Jurcina, at least this group is young with potential for improvement.

It's going to take years for the defenders in the system
(Reinhart/Pullock/Mayfield/Pedan) unsigned defenders to be a factor here
whether the gm/coach stay or go.

Still make no mistake this team cannot use it's past massive injury numbers, it's a losing season plain and simple where winning was expected/promoted by management. They cannot hide from it, and deserve criticism.

If the team works hard win or lose (they have worked hard to get into position to win despite results) I expect Jack Capuano will keep his job playing his veterans. There have been many teams that fall apart, losing games big for extended periods, that's when a coach is dismissed.

If the teams best defender Travis Hamonic is getting beat one on one by Kopitar, Crosby, Ovechkin why is a different coach going to play another defender in those circumstances?

I also suspect Garth Snow will keep his job despite Charles Wang not being shy about buying out big contracts because of fan pressure. Snow deserves some big criticism for the Clutterbuck trade.

As written about here already it's tough for many owners to find a compatible general manager or team President which is why many keep their jobs for years regardless of results.

The UFA market the last few summers did not have a defender to address the loss of Mark Streit.

Oddly Rick DiPietro started eighteen games in March/April 2013
risking his buyout if that was the intention from the moment he was
demoted so these things usually are undecided until the final day.

Perhaps an Andrew MacDonald resigning/likely not because we know the history by now, and suspect that's why he was split from Travis Hamonic, but both struggled together.

Calvin deHaan, Aaron Ness (despite big minus rating) are doing nothing to be sent down which is good news but leaves few spots.

Matt Donovan should be back for the second half of this season, big scoring defenders are a must here, he likely will take MacDonald's spot.

Likely a trade of Nabokov by the deadline if healthy, but a moderate (conditional third) return.

Have seen nothing but solid work by Kevin Poulin/Anders Nilsson in front of a defense that implodes, no doubt both can split the work if necessary.

An attempt at resigning Thomas Vanek will not be with a contract front-loaded by thirty five percent which he will demand, and many corporate teams can/will offer because Charles Wang does not receive the taxpayer money of his counterparts in New York/New Jersey/or around NHL.

Unless Vanek really loves being here, risking money in a future buyout, he likely will have to be traded.

Solid first line player? Yes. Franchise superstar? No.

Has Tavares taken over games in the third period or produced any big goals with him? No, beyond Vanek's goal against Washington where the team had their worst collapse of all.

The folly of Kirill Petrov should finally be decided for good this summer.

Expect Anders Lee to get a call, and see some time with Strome, Nelson in the NHL.

Scott Pellerin's done a solid job with a lot less than he had a year ago, his contract is up.

It is possible Pellerin could get the interim call to the NHL if things go off the rails completely with Capuano, but he's done nothing close to merit this.
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Even though the entries are becoming very infrequent here, I would like to wish everyone, and their families a Very Happy Holiday/Merry Christmas/New Year.

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